Causes Of World War I Essay

965 words - 4 pages

Kayla Zerger
Guyars
AP Euro
19 March 2014
Causes of World War I
“Fighting for your country is the greatest honor a man could have”, never before World War I was this statement so widely spoken. World War I changed the way wars were fought. It changed the way wars were in general. Nationalism, the want to fight for your country was truly a heavy cause of World War one, everybody wanted to do the right and upstanding, honorable thing. With that came imperialism, simply taking over other regions and having more power and land was a reason to start a war in itself. The final cause was Alliances; countries that fought with you when you needed them now needed you. Even if your country was not ...view middle of the document...

All countries believed in Militarism or at least it seemed like they did. Ready to fight and defend their country on all accounts. An enormous supply of troops that were willing, excited even to fight in a war for their most beautiful country doesn’t slow down the fighting and combat, rather it pushes it to even greater lengths. Another huge player dealing with the war was the arms races, specifically the one between Britain and Germany. Germany was jealous of Britains “superior naval forces” and the use of dreadnought-class ships that helped draw a barrier to be carried out in World War I between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente.
Imperialism is another huge quality found in all citizens during World War I. Not only did the Kings and leaders of the military want to conquer new and better places, everybody did. Everybody thought and dreamed of greater places to live and of their country having all the power and land in the world. When the entire world has this mind set, wars are inevitable because everybody wants each other’s land and has the strong intent to have it. One major example was Alsace-Lorraine, which was constantly being fought between France and Germany. Both wanted the land before World War I and during both rushed in to take it away from the other. This constant back and forth caused a major conflict between the two countries that erupted into a war, all part of WWI. Most will argue and say when you put as many people as there was in Europe in that small of an area there will no matter what be disputes. All these disputes and want for more land will always end up in a war, and apparently not a small one.
The final and most impacting cause of...

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